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Real-time video technology can now be used to allow notaries to authenticate the execution of a document remotely. Physical distancing measures to manage the coronavirus outbreak have caused difficulties for the signing of documents which need a notary to be present.

The Housing and Property Chamber has extended its postponement of case management discussions (CMDs) and scheduled hearings until July 9 at the earliest. A date of May 28 was originally set back in March as part of the measures required to manage the COVID-19 outbreak.

Further concerns have been raised about the independence of the judiciary in Poland after a judge linked to the ruling right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party was appointed head of the Supreme Court. Małgorzata Manowska, a 55-year-old judge who briefly served as a deputy justice minister in a PiS-le

Benjamin Bestgen discusses law in utopian fiction. See his last jurisprudential primer here. Dystopian fiction has enjoyed significant popularity again in recent years: Day of the Oprichnik or Hunger Games followed the footsteps of classics like The Handmaid’s Tale, 1984, The Dispossessed, Dar

A suspected "spy pigeon" has been captured by Indian authorities in Kashmir close to the country's border with Pakistan. Security agencies are trying to establish whether the pigeon was trained in Pakistan to carry messages across the border, Sky News reports.

Two tenants of properties in a housing development in Motherwell have failed to establish that a civil engineering firm breached a duty of care owed to them in respect of injuries they sustained whilst living on the site. Angela and Robert McManus alleged that they had suffered personal injury

High Court jury trials are to restart in July, the Lord Justice Clerk, Lady Dorrian has announced. Lady Dorrian is leading a working group with representatives from across the justice sector on recommencing jury trials during the lockdown.

A change in the immigration guidance issued by the Home Office is likely to make it much harder for many EU citizens in the UK to become British citizens. Prior to that change, an EU citizen who had acquired “Settled Status”, which gives them “indefinite leave to remain”, cou

A woman has been ordered to remove photos of her grandchildren from her social media accounts after a judge ruled that the matter was covered by the GPDR. The children's mother launched legal proceedings in the Dutch city of Arnhem after her own mother, with whom her relationship broke down a year a

Bill Gates famously said “intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana”. If this suggests he is not a huge fan of intellectual property rights that is certainly not reflected by Microsoft, the company in which he made his fortune. Microsoft has an enormous patent portfolio in exc

ESPC has highlighted how the Scottish property market might move forward after the coronavirus lockdown measures have been eased.

Volkswagen must reimburse motorists who bought vehicles fitted with "defeat devices" designed to cheat emissions tests, Germany's highest civil court has ruled. The Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe yesterday handed down its ruling in a test case brought by Herbert Gilbert, who bought a second-h

Claims have been lodged in courts in Belfast and in London on behalf of easyJet customers affected by the airline's recent data breach. In a statement last week, the airline said that nine million customers had their email addresses and travel details exposed in a data breach notified to the UK auth

Lawrie IP, an independent Scottish intellectual property firm based in Glasgow, has grown its total turnover to £2.6 million from £2.2m in the last year. Dr Donald Lawrie launched Lawrie IP in 2010 and it has expanded steadily with an increase in turnover of almost 200 per cent in t

Scot Dignan has become the first lawyer in the history of the WS Society to be admitted as a Writer to the Signet remotely. Mr Dignan, who is a legal inspector with HM Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland, prosecutor, PhD candidate at the University of Strathclyde and a former Lord Hope Scho